Diaz de los Muertos

Star awoke from her dreamless sleep to a small alarm clock ringing next to her ear. It took her only a moment before she was fully awake and slammed her hand down upon the noisy device. She quickly got up into a seating position and looked over at the clock still beneath her hand. It read two thirty. A.M. Her eyes sped over to her door, her mind racing as she silently berated herself for forgetting such a crucial part of the plan. The sound-proof spell, her mind yelled. How could you forget the most important part? She stayed there, sitting on her bed, her hand practically crushing the poor alarm clock, waiting in painful suspense for one of the guards to come check up on her. One full minute passed. Her heart rate started to drop, and she released the clock from her hand with a sigh of relief. She glanced back over at the clock, which now read two thirty one A.M. "Time to get started," she whispered drowsily.

Star opened her nightstands drawer to find her two most important tools: Her magical wand of imaginable power, and her dimensional scissors. She took both and put them on her nightstands counter. She then looked back down at the contents of the drawer, and held her breath. On top of pile of random junk was a small photo of herself and a friend of hers. They were posing in the silliest way possible: tongues stuck out with their hands making fake gang signs. The two in the photo were obviously enjoying a carefree and fun moment, yet Star's heart began to pace again. A wave of emotions overwhelmed her immediately, and she was forced to close her eyes and look away. The feelings only lasted for a moment or two, but it felt like forever. She slowly looked back down at the photo and sighed with exasperation. Then put the photo on her nightstand with the other two items and walked over to her dresser. She undressed and then went searching for a dress. After a minute or two, she found it: the Spanish-American styled dress that she wore during the Blood Moon Ball. She hastily put the dress on, grateful that she had remembered to get it tailored recently. The Blood Moon Ball had been over four years ago, and she had grown quite considerably since then.

After getting the dress on, Star went back over to her nightstand. She picked up the three items she had taken out earlier, making absolutely sure that she did not look at the photo again. Then she crouched down to the ground to get a duffel bag out from under her bed. After a quick inspection of the contents of the bag, the young princess out it around her shoulder. She debated on whether or not she should wear make-up, but she decided against it. It would take too much time, and it might stain her face if she wasn't careful. Star then tiptoed over to her door, taking extra precautions to avoid stepping on any of the miscellaneous pieces of debris that littered her room. When she approached the door, she put her ear against its frame to hear for any nearby guards. When no obvious guard sounds were heard, she took a step back and got out her wand. "Extra quiet shadow cover," she murmured into the wand. The wand glowed bright for a moment, and then dimmed down greatly. A chill went down Stars back, forcing her to shudder. She then tried to speak aloud, and heard nothing. Nodding to herself in satisfaction, she opened the door and headed for the kitchen.

The walk to the kitchen was uneventful. Star passed by a few guards on the way, but her spell kept her from being seen. The hallways were dark, but the small glow of the wand let her see far enough ahead to get a sense of where she was. When she arrived at the kitchen door, she opened it to find that her bribe from earlier had worked: the kitchen staff had left large plates of lovely Mexican-type foods for her. Several sugar skulls lay on a platter next to a hot pot filled with a sweet smelling liquid, probably atole. Pan de Muerto, chocolate coffins, candied pumpkins and several other sweets lay on a tray next to the atole. Gorditas, elotes, enchiladas, taquitos, hard and soft tacos alike, quesadillas, and, of course, nachos (Star had specifically requested that there be nachos prepared). Star looked at the arrangements with a bit of awe. She took a whiff of the scent that carried throughout the room and let out a small sigh of delight. Damn, she thought to herself as she crossed over to the pile of foods. I need to remember to thank the chef when I get back. This is incredible.

When she arrived at the table, she waved her hand over the foods. Sure enough, the foods were still nice and warm, just as she had asked. She then took out her dimensional scissors and opened up a portal to the site where Ludo's castle had once been. It was still just as desolate and creepy as it had been after the destruction of the first wand. The air smelled of decayed plants and dirt, an immense contrast to the aroma of the kitchen. Star looked around inside of the portal to make sure no one was around, and then she threw the duffel bag she had been carrying into the portal. She then went back into the kitchen and started carefully moving the platters of food into the portal. It took 4 trips to get it all in and on the ground next to the bag. She then closed the portal behind her and let out a small sigh. "No turning back now"Star said to herself with the barest trace of anxiety. Then again, she thought more pensively, there was no real choice to begin with. This had to work. Or at least, Star had to try.

She bent down to open up the bag, her hands slightly trembling as she did. She brought the contents of the bag out around herself, keeping a medium sized space in front of her empty. She brought out candles, papel picados of varying colors and designs, a red cloth, a bottle of shampoo, a basic shaving kit, soap, a slightly torn red hoodie, a dusty green belt, and a small foldable table in its compact form. After everything was out, Star began to set up an altar. First, the table was unfolded and put in the space that was previously left open. Then, the cloth was put on top of the table. Next, the items from the duffel bag were spread across the table, with the candles in the back and the personal belongings up front. The next step was to add the food to the table. Unfortunately, there was barely any space left after adding the special items, so the food had to stay on the ground. Finally, star waved her wand over the candles, giving a dim light to the altar. After the candles were lit, Star took a step back to look at her work.

It was beautiful. Simple, yet sweet. It reminded her greatly of whom it was made for, as it should. For the past three months, she had been working to try to get all of the materials together. She'd had to research the recipes for the Mexican foods for the cooks, save up enough money to get the table and bribe the kitchen staff to help her out, and get the personal belongings together. It had been far from easy, and she had repeatedly doubted whether or not it was going to work. But now, as she looked upon the altar glowing in the darkness, she felt something she hadn't felt in a long while: real happiness. Maybe the spell won't work, she thought dully. But he'd still have liked the display, and that's what matters. Right?

Star took the small photo that she'd gotten earlier out of her pocket. She looked down at the two smiling teenagers with a soft, sad smile. Her hands started to tremble as she began to think about the one person she'd been relentlessly trying to not think about. His soft brown hair, his light Latino skin, the sound of his laugh, his overprotective nature, the first time they had met, both the silly and the serious adventures she had shared with him, their first dance, her quinceañera, and the day her had died- All of it came rushing back to her like the flood from a broken dam. Her hands started to tremble as all of her worst emotions started to vie for control over her mind. Anger, sorrow, guilt, fear and regret all overpowered her, bring her to her knees. Tears started to form as unanswerable questions consumed her thoughts. "Why?"She suddenly croaked out in frustration. "It had been like any other battle. Toffee's monsters were trying to take down Mewni, and we were stopping them. What was different? Was I not fast enough? Did I get distracted? And why him? Why not me? It's the royal family Toffee's after, so why didn't he try to kill me? Why'd it have to be M-, Ma-?"

She couldn't do it. She couldn't bring herself to say his name. She began to cry. She cried. And cried. And cried. The weight of the past three months had finally broken her. It was a long time before she was able to control her breathing again. When she did, she looked back down at the photo with fierce determination. She was going to make things right. She was going to bring back her best friend. She was going to bring back Marco.

She strode over to the altar with that fierce determination still blazing in her eyes. She crouched down to the head of the altar, where the hoodie Marco had worn during their last battle was placed. She carefully placed the picture down next to the hoodie, making sure not to wrinkle or tear it in the process. Then she knelt down at the altar, took out her wand, and began to say a spell. It was unlike nearly any spell she had done before. Most of the spells she usually used had loud, quick incantations and brilliantly flashing colors. They didn't take much time or require certain items or settings. This spell, however, was the exact opposite. It was a slow, intricate, methodical chant that required all of her concentration to sustain. Each syllable of the spell had to be enunciated perfectly or it would backfire. Star had practiced for days trying to get the spell's verses down correctly, and it had only been the night before that she had completed a full run of the spell correctly. Now, she spoke the spell loud and clear over the altar of her friend. As she did, her wand slowly began to glow a faint white light. It shined over the surrounding area with a small yet not feeble power. As Star flawlessly continued the spell, the small light continued to grow in size. Star's voice grew with the light, flowing with it all across the wasteland. Finally, nearly yelling at this point, Star finished the final line of the spell and let it out of the wand.

An enormous Bang erupted from the wand, and a wave of light flooded the land. Star was blinded by the blast and had to look away. Then the light faded and the wand went still. Star immediately looked back towards the altar in front of her in anticipation…

But there was nothing. The altar was exactly as it had been before. Star waited hopefully for a few seconds, and then let her head fall to her knees. The spell had failed. She had failed. Three months' worth of work, and she had failed. Tears began to reform at her eyes, and she started to cry again. "I'm sorry," she croaked into her knees. "I'm sorry Marco."

And then the candle lights placed on the table began to dim. A soft wind started to build around the setup, and Star momentarily stopped her crying to look around herself in confusion. The paper skull that had been on the center of the table started to shake in random, convulsive patterns. Then it flew up into the air and began spinning on its axis. The wind pulled up dust and sent it to go spiraling around the skull. Shapes began to form in the dust, and Star could swear that some of them looked like bones. After a moment, she was shocked to see that they were bones. An entire human skeleton was created before her very eyes, the bones being made from just dust. When the skeleton was finished, the skull stopped spinning and rested itself on top of the vertebrae. Blue light started to shine from the torso, and a translucent form overlapped the skeletal body. After a few seconds, the light faded. The form that had appeared over Star lowered itself to just above the altar and looked down at her. And as it did, the face of Star's bestest friend of all time and dead boyfriend smiled back to her as if they had just been hanging out.

"Hey Star," Marco said cheerfully. "How's it going?"

Star froze in place. Her mind tried to keep up with all of the competing emotions and ideas, but it was impossible. All she could do was stare up at him, dumbfounded by her success. She stayed that way for a full five seconds before one of Marco's eyebrows started to rise to his forehead.

"Uh, Star?" he asked, a tad uncertain. "You ok?"

That restarted Star's brain. Anger started to build within her, and her body started to shake. "How's it going?" she stated sarcastically, not holding any of her anger back. "How's it going?! I've been spending the last three months trying to get you back, working my gluteus maximus off to get all of the materials, the spell, and the food together. I've had to rob your house, pay off my own cooks, secure a proper location, and learn one of the hardest F-ing spells known in the universe, and the first thing you say is 'How's it going'"?

Marco looked down at her, clearly startled by her outburst. Then he lowered himself down to the ground beside her and gave her a small smile. "Well, yeah," he said genially. "How else would you know it was me?"

Star's anger immediately grew to ten times its previous size, and then crashed. Her face went blank for a second, and then she started to giggle. The situation was so insane, how could she not laugh? There she was, standing next to her dead boyfriend who was acting as he'd never died. Her giggles grew to short chuckles, then to a small laugh, and before she knew it she was clutching her sides, cackling hysterically. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she laughed uncontrollably. Marco's eyes grew in alarm. "Star," he panicked, fearing he had messed up horribly somehow. "What's wrong?"

She looked up at him, tears streaking her face, a smile of utter joy beaming up to him brighter than the sun's golden rays. It was the first smile she'd had in over three months, and it felt great. "I've missed you, Marco," she said in between laughs. "I've missed you so much."

Marco's face shone with comprehension for a second, and then he gave her a bittersweet smile. He let his arms hang out in a gesture suggesting a hug, and she fell into his arms and stuffed her wet face into his shoulder. She held onto him tighter than any other hug she had ever given. Marco returned the hug, and she cried into his shoulder. "Hey," he said slowly, shushing her in a smooth, gentle tone. "It's all alright. I'm here now. Don't worry." He kept reassuring her that everything was alright until her sobs began to get softer. He pulled her from his shoulder (which was now soaked with tears and wet snot) and gave her a small, mellow grin. Her face was still stained with tears, but they were beginning to dry up. He held her face in his left hand and tilted her head up to him. "Look," he said. "I'm here. See?" Star gave him a small smile and nodded. "Good," he announced a bit louder. "Then stop this crying and get a hold of yourself. What happened to the badass princess I knew?"

Her smile grew a little and she wiped a tear from her face. "She's still here, Wild man. And she'll kick your rear if you make another comment like that."

Marco grinned with satisfaction at her. "That's the spirit."

Star grinned up at him with pure joy. All of her anger, grief, guilt, and horror had drained out of her, leaving her with the happiness she had so desired to have once again. Everything in her life had fallen apart after Marco's death, and now he was back. Everything was going to be alright.

Marco gave her a moment to recover before he broke the silence. "So," he said conversationally, breaking away from the hug and looking around the altar. "What's for breakfast? I haven't eaten…" he paused for a second to look up towards the sky as if trying to remember something. "Why, anything for the past three months!" he added with a bit of fake astonishment.

Star smiled up at him and made a sweeping gesture whilst taking a small bow. "The feast of the dead," she said with an excessive amount of loftiness. "Prepared for the one and only Marco Diaz."

Marco chuckled to himself and went to get a cup of atole and a slice of Pan de Muerto. While he did, Star took a closer look at Marco's phantasmal form. He was wearing what he had worn almost every day when he had been alive: a red hoodie, blue skinny jeans, and a pair of old Chucks. His skin had a soft tan to it, sort of like a bagel, and his hair was its usual chocolate brown. His eyes were a smooth brown that complemented his hair, and he had a little black mole on the left side of his face, which she thought was adorable. Overall, he seemed to be the exact same Marco she had known. Except he was blue.

All of Marco's body, from his hair to his skin to even his clothing, was a pale, frosty blue. It was slightly translucent, allowing her to vaguely see the skeleton that lay beneath his aura. His entire body was radiating a small glow, although it was not as big as it had been when he had first been forming. Odd, she thought to herself, worry starting to form in the back of her mind. He's not…

It didn't take long for Marco to realize that Star was staring at him. He looked towards her with an inquisitive expression. "What?" he asked.

"Um," she said, trying to cover up the fact that she had been staring at him. She debated with herself on whether or not she should ask. There was no harm in asking, but she figured it was nothing. The spell must still be in the process of bringing him back, she reasoned. It'll be gone soon.

"Nothing," she rushed out. "Just… thinking about something from earlier." She tried to think of a way to change the subject. "So, uh, how's the afterlife?"

Marco took a small sip of his cup of atole and looked out unto the wastelands. He frowned in concentration for a few moments before relaxing his face and giving her a small smile. "Well, it's interesting," he said matter-of-factly. "The adventure of life doesn't really end when you die. There's a lot of things dead people have to do to get to the final resting spot. And you meet a lot of interesting people on the way." He took another sip of his atole and let out a satisfied sigh. "Geez, Star," he said with a small amount of surprise and admiration. "How did you get all of this food? I know you can cook, but this," he gestured around himself at the piles of food. "This is a ton of food, even for you."

Star gave him a prim smile and, imitating the voice of her mother, said, "A princess must keep herself well learned in the finer crafts of life." Then she changed her smile to a sly grin and spoke in her usual voice, "Like bribery."

"Ah," Marco said grinning with her. "A fine craft indeed."

Star giggled a little before letting herself sit down in a comfortable position. "So, you said you meet lots of interesting people in the afterlife," Star stated. "Like what?"

Marco scrunched up his face, clearly upset by something. "Well," he said a little less cheerful than before, "I've met a few criminals who were sentenced to repent for their actions. Some of them were actually genuinely trying to make up for their sins and were quite nice. Others," he shrugged his shoulders stiffly. "Not so much. And I've found some people that I'd met before." His face suddenly grew a shade more somber and detached. "I saw Jackie and Oscar recently."

Stars eyes widened as she took in a sharp breath. It had been a dark day at the Diaz family's house when they had learned of the incident. The night before their crushes had passed, Star and Marco had reluctantly paid a visit to Tom. After a long, tiresome night, Star had tactlessly explained to Tom that she did not like him. Tom, infuriated by her response, had decided to take revenge. From what they had been told, Oscar and Jackie had been partying at a friend's house that night, as well as Ferguson and Alphonse and a few of their other friends. Tom arrived at the party with an army from hell, and killed everyone there. When they heard about the event, the two teenagers were struck with horrible grief and guilt at the loss of so many of their friends. It was incredibly shocking to both of them that Tom had gone through with such a heartless action, but it didn't take long for their anger to overcome their surprise. They eventually repaid Tom's travesty in full, but it didn't bring their friends back to them. It had taken a long time for them to move on from the event, and even now the mere mention of their names could cause either one of them to become distant and upset.

Star's mind started to race again, but she quickly and near effortlessly pushed it down. She had had a lot of practice with controlling her emotions recently. She steadied her breath and then softly asked, "How are they?"

Marco's took in a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and let himself soften up a bit. "They're doing alright, considering where they are," he replied, an air of weariness present in his voice. "They're in Purgatory at the moment, but, from what I could tell from my conversation with them, not for much longer. And," he looked towards Star with a bitter smile. "They don't blame us for the incident."

Star's eyes went a little wider. "What," she asked in amazement.

"Yeah," Marco said with a less bitter smile. "They said it was Tom who killed them, and that even though he had done it because of us, it was still his doing."

"Oh," Star said, her eyes not really focused on anything. "That's… good."

Marco chuckled a bit to himself. "Yeah," he said, trying not to feel guilty about the situation despite what he had just said. He decided a new subject was probably for the best. "So, how's are my mom and dad doing?"

Star suddenly started to silently panic. She hadn't talked to the Diaz family since the day of the incident, and she hadn't exactly left well. Her mind worked fervently to find a way out of the question. "Uh," she stammered, tapping her heels to the ground in rapid succession. "They're fine, y'know? Hey, is that a stain on your shirt?"

It took Marco perhaps half a second of listening to Star to figure that something was wrong. His eyebrow started to rise in skepticism. "Star?" he inquired slowly.

"No, seriously, I think you spilled some atole on your shirt," Star desperately sped on.

Marco gave her a flat look and stated, "You're an awful liar, Star. What's up?"

Star looked at him guiltily and said, "I… haven't really seen them much since…" she gestured vaguely at his form.

Concern began to form on Marco's face. "What's wrong, Star? Are they alright?"

Star suddenly became very interested in staring at the skull candies around Marco's feet. "No, no, they're fine," she said, avoiding his gaze. There was no way she was going to avoid telling him now, and she knew it. But some thick-headed part of her kept declaring that the façade was not over, and that they should continue to allege innocence. She bite her lip and gave him what she had hoped was a genuinely reassuring nod before turning away again. Instead of calming her friend down, it only made Marco more upset. The concern on his face started to become evident as he spoke.

"Star, please," he pleaded. His voice grew with hysteria as his imagination treated him to some horribly gruesome possibilities. "How bad is it? Are they hurt? Did Toffee get to them? Are they sick? What is wrong?" He looked to her with wide, rabid eyes, yet she kept avoiding his gaze. "Please," he begged. "Please."

When Star looked back at him, she was immediately filled with regret. The pain on his face was worse than any physical torture she could have inflicted upon him. If she could inflict any physical pain on him, that was. Star took in a deep breath, held it for a second, and then let it out in a big, defeated huff.

"I," she said, glancing up at the sky while trying to find the right words. "Sort of had a bit of a little falling out with them." She stared at his eyes anxiously, trying to figure out how upset he was about to be.

Marco's entire body relaxed at the lack of words such as "dying" or "captured" or "sick" in her sentence. An audible sigh of relief escaped him. Then his eyebrows furrowed and he gave Star another puzzled expression. "What do you mean you had a falling out?"

Star took in another deep breath and let it out with significantly less drama. Her wand instinctively went up to her mouth to be chewed as she considered her next statement. "Well," she said, her words slightly muffled by the wand. "After you, you know," she gestured vaguely towards him, "passed on, I got a bit emotional. So did your parents. Especially your mom. Words that probably shouldn't have been said were exchanged, and then I left." Her gaze fell to her feet as she stifled a sneeze. "We haven't talked since."

As Star had been explaining, Marco's face had slowly lit up with understanding, followed by a grimace of regret. "Oh, Star," he sighed, closing his eyes and pinching his nose. "I'm so sorry."

Star's eyes sprung up to look at his. "What?" she asked, shocked. "Why?"

Marco hand went through his hair absently as he shook his head. "About what happened. About going after Toffee despite it being another obvious trap. All I could think about was taking him down, no matter the cost. I didn't care that I might die. But," he covered his eyes in shame and turned his head to the side. "I should have realized that you would care. And that my family would care." He sighed in defeat and let himself fall on to the ground in a seated position. "I'm sorry."

Star's eyes were bleary by his second sorry. She blinked the tears out of her eyes and crouched down beside him. "Hey, listen," Star whispered, trying not to let herself cry again. "I won't lie, it hasn't been easy. You're my best friend, and my crush, and my soulmate. I've missed you. A lot. But that's alright. You're here now, and that's all that matters."

Marco looked up from his hands into her eyes with doubtful eyes. He started to argue, "But what I did-"

"-Was to protect me." Star cut in. She gave him a small smile. "And you did an excellent job of it."

Marco gave a small chuckle, "Well," he said, a small smile of his own forming at the corners of his mouth, "I guess I did." Star's smile grew much more petite and joyful. It brought a warmth to Marco that he hadn't felt in a long while. It always baffled Marco how cute and loving Star could be.

"You absolutely did," she confirmed confidently. She put her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. He returned in full, and they stayed like that for a short time, letting themselves forget everything around them. Then, finally, they broke apart and rose to their feet.

"So," Marco said, restarting their conversation a second time. "How bad was the fallout with my parents?"

Star grimaced a bit and let out a tired breath. "Pretty bad, to be honest," she said. "I think I called your mom a –"she said a word that made Marco cough in surprise.

"Wow." He aimlessly scratched the back of his head with his right hand. "You should probably go apologize. It's been, what, three weeks since I died?"

"Three months," she corrected, "And I don't know if I can."

"Wow, three months?" he asked, stunned. "Time in the land of the dead goes by slow. And of course you can. You just need to actually do it."

"Eh…"

"Come on, you've lived at my house for how long?" he raised an eyebrow of disbelief at her. "My parents know you well enough to know that you didn't mean any of it. It was a hard time for both of you."

Star gave him an unsure look. "I don't know. Maybe we should go together. That way you can help me if I freeze up."

Marco looked at her as if he had misheard what she'd said. "What?" he asked.

"You know, after the spell finishes," she said, as if it were obvious. "Although I'm really surprised that it hasn't finished yet. I'd think that you'd be all the way back by now."

Marco gave her a confused look. "What do you mean by 'back'?" he asked nonplussed.

Star looked at him as though he were a bit slow. "'Back' as in back to fully human, alive, not in that weird ghostly form."

Marco's face went blank. He stared at Star silently for a long time. She frowned back at him.

"What's up?" she asked, nonplussed.

"Star," he said very quietly. "I'm still dead."

She chuckled to herself a bit and gave him another funny look. "Well, yeah, because the spell isn't fini-"

"No, Star, you don't understand." Frustration and panic had made his voice grow. "I'm still dead. I'm a ghost right now. I'm not coming back to life."

Star's mouth froze in mid-sentence. She stared back at Marco with confusion and disbelief. "No, Marco, I cast a spell that was supposed to bring you back to life," she said stubbornly. "It's just taking a long time, that's all."

Marco's temper continued to grow as she refused to see what he saw. "Star, listen to me. I've only been in the Land of the Dead for a short time, but there's something you learn really quick down there: People don't come back to life. They just don't. Any and all attempts to bring someone back only bring them back as a ghost for a short time or bring them back… wrong." He shuddered at that last word, remembering horrible events. He looked up to see that she was staring at him, not moving or saying a word. Her eyes were turning red, and she seemed to be shaking slightly. He took a second to cool his temper, and then said, "You can't bring me back, Star. You can't."

Star's mind went into overdrive as it tried to keep herself steady on her own crumbling reality. Marco was dead, she realized. He was still dead, and, if what he had said was true, then there was no way that he would come back. Her vision started to spin while she tried to see how she hadn't seen the obvious truth. I should have realized that something was off when he didn't stop glowing blue, she thought, hating herself for being so foolish. Why didn't I see it then? How could I have been so arrogant and blind? "I thought," she said out loud, trying to explain her rash confidence. "I thought you were just-"she took a breath to steady herself. "I thought the spell hadn't ended yet."

Marco let out a sigh and softened his expression even further. "Star," he began, but was cut off by Star as she took a step away from him and put her hands over her face.

"I thought if I could find the right spell, if I could get the right materials together-"Star choked out the last word. The anguish in her voice was soon joined by the anger she felt at the injustice that had been wrought against her. It isn't fair, she cried internally. After everything I've gone through to get him back, and it's all for naught? It was impossible from the beginning? "The spell didn't say it would bring back a ghost," she said with bitter fury and grief. "It said that it would bring you back, back for good, not in this," she said a word that made Marco wince, "half-real half-whatever body." She started to cry hard now, tears streaming down her face, large sobs coming out in erratic patterns. "Why didn't you tell me you weren't fully back earlier?"

Marco's gentle eyes met with hers and he started to silently cry with her. "I thought you had already known," he said, his voice slightly strained yet still soft. "I had thought that," he hesitated for a second before making a calculated risk and telling her the truth, "that this was a final good-bye."

Star's sobbing grew even louder and harder, her body shaking in the convulsions. "Well, it wasn't!" she yelled, her voice hard and sharp. She glared at him with her fiery, red-swollen eyes, only to be met with his own, melancholy stare. Her anger slowly started to fade, and as it did, she fell on her knees to the ground. Marco swiftly went to her side as she fell, but she turned away from him. "It wasn't meant to be that," she sobbed almost silently, only grief left in her voice. "It wasn't…" she swallowed and stopped talking. Her sobs turned to soft weeping breaths and small sniffles.

Marco put his arm reassuringly on her shoulder and spoke quietly, "Star, have I ever told you the origins of the day of the dead?"

Star slowly looked up to him with a tears stained face and shook her head. Marco nodded and continued.

"Back before the Spanish conquistadors came and destroyed the Native Central American tribes, the Aztecs had been a thriving empire with a very unique culture. They had believed that when a person died, it would be rude and selfish to mourn over the person. So, rather than have sad funerals where people gave flowers and eulogies and dressed all in black, they would celebrate the life that person had lived, rather than dwell on what had been lost. That is where the modern day Dias de los Muertos comes from, the celebration of the memories that you had made with that person and the life they had lived. Star," he took her chin in his hand and lifted up her face towards himself. "I know that it's been hard for you. Heck, we've both lost several friends along the way, and I can only imagine how hard it is for you to have to lose another, especially one so close to you. But I am gone, and nothing can change that. All you can do is learn to move on, and remember the good times we did share over the ones we could have shared."

Star looked into Marco's large, brown eyes with uncertainty and distress. "But it's so hard," she complained. "You were my best buddy, my best friend, my love. I saw you every day of my life for the last four years. How can I just move on as if you never happened?"

"Because I'll still be with you," he said with a small smile. "In here." He placed his hand over where her heart would've been.

Star gave an involuntary laugh. "Gosh, that's so corny," she said, a small smile forming at the edges of her mouth.

"Corny, but true," Marco said, his smile turning into his trademark lovely grin. "Now," he stood up and outstretched his hand towards her. "Come on up. Don't tell me the coolest girl I know is gonna let little old me keep her from progressing in life?"

Star's smile grew and she took his hand. He pulled her up, and she dusted herself off. "You know," Star said, mirth clearly present in her slightly cracked voice. "If we keep crying like this so much, we're gonna end up like Steven Universe."

Marco gave a hearty laugh at that. "Yeah," he said. "That would be something." An idea popped in his head, and his eyes widened a little bit. "Hey, I've got an idea." He took both of her hands in his and met his eyes with hers. "You're certainly dressed for the occasion, so why don't we have one last dance?"

Star's eyes widened, and a flash of uncertainty went through her body before she gave a warm smile. "I'd love that," she said.

"Great," he said, grinning with excitement. "Uh, just give me a second to change and get the music set." He took a few steps back and closed his eyes. Then his glowing blue aura began to glow even brighter, and he was lifted a few feet off of the ground. The light grew brighter and brighter, forcing Star to shield her eyes. When the light had finally dimmed, Marco had changed into his tux from the Blood Moon Ball.

"And now," he said in a whimsical voice. "The music." And then music started to play. It was a classical piece, something Star didn't recognize, but it felt right to her. Marco took her hands in his again, led her over to an open space around them, and they danced.

It was perfect. Absolutely perfect. They both moved together in unison with the music, each knowing exactly what to do. Their eyes met at different times throughout the piece, and each moment felt like bliss for them. They stopped trying to think or feel or act, and simply let themselves enjoy the dance. When they ended, their faces were only two inches apart, and they were breathing a bit heavier than before.

"I love you, Marco," Star said.

"I love you too, Star," He said.

They stayed in their pose for a second longer, and then brought each other into a hug. They hugged tightly, not letting go, trying to make that most of their last hug.

"I don't want you to go," Star said softly.

"I know," Marco said, trying to keep his voice even. "I know."

They broke apart and looked at each other with a mix of happiness and heartache. Star felt a light warmth appear on her right cheek, and she turned to see that the sun was rising. Marco looked towards it with a steady resolve before looking back to Star.

"I'll see you later," he said in a neutral tone. "Don't forget to tell my parents I said good-bye."

Star looked at him with a bittersweet grin. Tears started to form again, but she kept them from falling. "Of course. Good-bye, Marco."

And they he started to fade away. The blue aura that had surrounded him got dimmer as the sun continued its slow rise, and eventually it was completely gone. The bones that had been underneath the aura turned to dust again and blew away in a sudden gust of wind. All that remained of the ghost that she had spent the night with was the fake skull she had crafted the other day. She took it in her hands, as well as his red hoodie, and closed her eyes.

"Good-bye, Marco," she whispered, completely alone now. "I'll see you later."

Happy Day of the Dead, everyone! Never forget those who we have loved that have passed, but not with sorrow over what could have been, but with joy over what greatness had been.

I may add an Epilogue at some point, if that is what you guys would enjoy.